The Call
by Moonsetta
Summary: Sequel to "Popularity." When Damian appears in BHPD headquarters one morning, Nightwing is pulled back to Gotham to find the city in lock down and a hunter out to see the Bat-Clan dead.
1. Chapter 1

Sequel to "Popularity"

I don't own Dick Grayson AKA, Nightwing, Robin, Red X, Renegade, Batman, The Target, -you know what forget it, there's too many to name...

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><p>Two weeks after his 4:00am awakening, Dick Grayson fell onto the beat up couch in the small living room of his apartment taking a deep breath of relaxation. Finally, after helping all the teams, he was home and only had a small, burning laceration from his right shoulder to his left hip. Those aliens had some pretty dang good aim with those laser swords.<p>

Star Wars affiliation much?

He would have brooded more if he hadn't heard his air conditioner kick on. Strange, it wasn't even cold. That's when he convinced himself to sit up strait. Alfred would've reprimanded him for slouching. Raising his head up and clenching his fists, Dick finally became aware of the envelope he was holding. He hadn't bothered to read any mail for the past few weeks considering that in at least three of those weeks, however many there were in total, he had been somewhere else either in the city, in the country, on the planet, or somewhere in the universe. The acrobat didn't bother to look at this envelope either, but he had convinced himself to get to his feet and lay it with the others on the table in his bedroom.

Of course, that had meant exhausting walking into said bedroom, all the way from the main room!

Boy, was he bushed. The worn out hero easily collapsed onto his bed.

That's when the cell phone in his pocket rang.

He bit back curses and heaved the greatest sigh/growl in history and took out his cell phone, not even bothering to see who was calling.

"Talk."

The voice on the other end hummed for a few seconds before speaking, "Hey Dick, worn out?"

Blue eyes opened in a bit of a surprise, though they were clearly still weary as the hero managed to sit up, "Hey Tim. What's up? Please tell me it doesn't involve a planetary war, numerous exploding skyscrapers, food coming to life or a mad thug hyped up on steroids."

"I prefer the term demon, or leech."

Dick rolled his eyes and closed them again, hiding the blue hue, "This is about Damian, right?"

"I got a letter from him."

Dick let a small smile slip onto his face, maybe they were going to start getting along, "Really? What'd he say?"

"Dear Drake, You need not return home. Here is a drawing of you being dead. Yours, Damian. There's an actual picture of me being dead on here!"

Dick sighed and rubbed at his tired and still closed eyes. He didn't know what was worse, Tim calling and ranting about Damian or Huntress calling and bad mouthing her latest date. Since when was he a counselor for the superhero community? He didn't remember signing up for this.

He went to speak when Tim cut off the sentence with his own question, "Did you get anything similar?"

Dick's eyes strayed over to the mail he had been setting down on the far table. There were still a few pieces of his alarm clock and landline phone nearby on the floor. He didn't _want _to get up, but he did. Only long enough to retrieve the stack of envelopes though, then he was back on his bed.

"Let's see, water bill, gas bill, catalog, survey, another catalog, coupon book-hey! I could use that."

"Dick!"

"Okay, sorry. Cable bill, cell phone bill-whoa!"

"What?"

"You only got one letter right?"

"Yeah."

"I just counted half a dozen."

"Great, you've gotten six death threats, congratulations."

"Tim, you're over exaggerating."

"Am not!"

Dick rolled his eyes before glancing outside. It was late.

"Look, I'll call you tomorrow Tim. I've got to be in at O'eight hundred hours if I want to avoid getting smacked upside the head by my partner."

"Amy's going to kill you one of these days."

"Probably."

"Just don't forget the letters!"

Unbeknowest to the hero, he should've taken those words to heart ASAP.

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><p>Across town, a small figure shivered under a gray, holey jacket, the hood hiding his face from the night's view. The form pressed it's back against the brick wall of a nearby building, which was an abandoned grocery store with a broken, yet barred window. Small feet kicked away pebbles as the figure slunk down the street. Most people ignored him. Good. They would all live to see tomorrow.<p>

The form kept moving, bobbing along like a young bird with no idea what direction it should take.

It wasn't long until the form stopped short and straitened the stooped over back he had. Neon lights of plush violet and ice blue danced across his partially revealed face from a nearby sign for some kind of restaurant.

His eyes weren't on the restaurant though.

The blue eyes were glancing across the street.

A sad scowl marred his face like a battle scar and he began his walk across the street, not caring when a rider-less motorcycle nearly ran him over. He didn't bother to even remotely question it in the back of his mind. The walk took a long three minutes because of the slow advance of the small feet, but he made it.

Pressing his face against a glass window at the front of the building he now stood in front of and relishing how the coolness brought the intensity of the heat beneath his skin's surface down, he breathed deeply. It was only for a few minutes though.

Silver gleamed in the night from a fair distanced street light and in no time, he had slipped through the transparent pane, closing and locking it behind him. Blue eyes glanced outside the opaque glass and seeing no one on the streets, the hood was pulled back.

The aqua eyes closed with a released sigh of silent defeat and the form melted into the darkness inside the building to find somewhere to stay still for a few hours.

Until then-

He opened a door and let the thicker darkness of the next room swallow him completely, along with the distant smell of coffee and doughnuts.

Outside, bells rang out in the air.

The clock struck 4:00am.

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><p>Yeah, this is actually the next part of my "Popularity" one-shot, that was actually supposed to be a full story. So, I don't know, if this turned out good, I might find some time after finals this upcoming week to type out another chapter.<p>

Although, I'm really iffy about a full story right now, given I've only written a single one-shot, so I'm still not very convinced I'm good at writing in this fandom, but I'll guess I'll see.

You review, I write more.

~Moonsetta


	2. Chapter 2

Hello readers, I've been convinced and threatened to write a second chapter. So, this has become a story. Go me!

Well, this is a little short bit, I'll work on chapter three today, but I can take this morning to type this up at least.

This is all about Tim. Given the Red Robin series was canceled, I have no idea where he's living at the moment and now I regret setting Nightwing back in Bludhaven and his old life style now that I've read that he's sticking around in Gotham.

Oh, the reboot but whatever, my story.

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><p>Tim Drake sighed and leaned back in his chair to stare up at his ceiling longingly. He started as he heard a shattering glass bottle hit against his window.<p>

Stupid drunkards.

The young detective growled under his breath and got to his feet. Stomping over to the window of the small apartment he was renting, and probably waking the neighbors. He locked the double lock and pulled back the curtain swiftly, blocking out the glare of a nearby floodlight outside. He sighed and walked back towards his desk, glancing down at a newspaper on top of a in-progress repair laptop. The black and white print had many sections circled with a red pen.

Said red pen was now in the waste basket given that the ink had run out.

With another sigh, the hero threw himself back into his chair, not bothering to right it when it tipped backwards and slid a little due to the wheels on it pushing against the broken tiles that made up the floor. A letter on the corner of his desk, THE letter, made him scowl before picking it up and balling it up in favor of throwing it in the nearby waste basket with the useless red pen.

Looking back down at the sections of the newspaper that were circled in red, Tim reread them.

They were all for apartments in Gotham city.

Yes, he was trying to get back home. Keyword 'was.'

Money wasn't really a problem given funds from both Bruce and his father Jack, nor was he short of friends and family in Gotham. He missed Wayne Manor. If only the son of the devil didn't live there.

He didn't like Damian, that was pretty cannon.

His actions of cutting himself off from the Bat-clan after Bruce's disappearance may not have been the smartest move, but it had been necessary at the time.

Knowing he was about to lose his consciousness to a long, uncontrolled mental rant, Tim turned to the in-pieces-laptop and continued his previous work. He was getting a fair sum of money fixing these old laptops, but man were they ancient!

This thing was a Brick, with only a 4 GB hard drive!

How long had the old landlady had this thing? It was no wonder that it didn't work any longer.

When blue eyes glanced up at his clock on the far wall:

4:00am glanced back up at him.

He yawned and reached for the lamp that was on the far corner of the desk.

That is, he had tried, before a clack claw encased his wrist from the shadows. He turned but a hand grabbed his throat before he could speak.

The lamp was knocked into the nearby curtain and the cloth immediately set ablaze as the porcelain and glass shattered and sparked.

Even through the light, Tim couldn't see the face of the one holding him. He only caught the sight of a red plate that hid the eyes of his captor.

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><p>Next chapter by tomorrow morning from this post.<p>

Please review.

~Moonsetta


	3. Chapter 3

Christmas break! Time to update!

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><p>Personal experiences throughout his life taught Dick Grayson that he preferred waking up in a small apartment other than a huge mansion. So, his morning ritual fell back into place now that he had returned home from that intergalactic war he'd been a part of. The sun had risen about an hour previously. The digital clock on the microwave in the kitchen, given that he had used his previous alarm clock some weeks ago to smash the landline phone the previous owner or owners had never bothered to cancel andor remove, glared back at him as he slid into the small kitchen from his quick shower and quick change into his police uniform.

A quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon with a quick swallow of a glass of orange juice, Dick darted out his front door, timing that he had a well adjusted 15 minutes to reach the BHPD station. No problem for his bike.

Acutely accurate, officer Grayson walked into his acquitted HQ at exactly 8:00am.

He could only stare as soon as he walked into the building though, for every officer and even some of the janitors, one of which was moping up something purple and lumpy from a floor ventilator, all stopped their current assignments and turned to stare at the young man. The entire room going deftly silent within those small moment was only a contrasting breath as a shout came from a back room.

"Grayson get your but in here now!"

Dick rolled his eyes. Great, Amy was pissed. What had he done now?

He trudged into the back room that separated the commissioner's office from the rest of the building. He was obviously absent but he found Amy leaning against the unfilled desk. He only got to stare in confusion for a few minutes before her head tilted to the right, motioning to the darkest corner of the room.

Blue eyes turned and widened at the sight of a figure curled up the corner, seemingly fast asleep.

Had a hobo wandered in during the night?

A normal officer might of put a hand to his gun but Dick simply tensed. Yeah, a past with Bruce Wayne/Batman made you a little weary of guns. Unless you were Jason of course.

That's when he realized that he could make out deep breaths coming from the figure and that it was much to quaint to be a fully grown hobo. In fact, it looked like a child. He would've guessed it to be a runaway kid, if only running away to a police station wouldn't have been the stupidest idea ever.

"Is he in danger?" Dick asked his partner, his eyes turning back to her.

The woman sighed, relaxed, walked past her partner and shut the door behind him.

Solitude then. It obviously wasn't just a run away.

Leaning against the door, Amy pushed herself off of it and her eyes lost their harshness. Yeah, it was one of _those _rare moments.

"The kid showed up sometime between midnight last night and 5:00am this morning."

Ah, so it was a child, "Who is he?"

"Don't know, he wouldn't let me near him."

Dick looked back towards the child and took a step towards him, there was something familiar in the air, but he couldn't exactly place it.

"He had this with him."

Dick turned back to look at the object his partner was holding out and nearly choked. It was a simple communicator, but not one he couldn't recognize instantly. It was one of his own. He changed direction and took the necessary steps forwards to reach out and take it.

Amy raised an eyebrow, half in curiosity and half in accusation, "He's looking for Nightwing."

Yep, no doubting the design of black and blue on the tech. Dick began turning back to the curled up figure as the form's breathing caught, signaling that he was waking up.

He had begun that turn, but not before-

_CRASH!_

Amy threw open the door at the sound.

Now, Bludhaven had it's fair share of crazies. Actually, probably more than their fair share of crazy lunatics and madmen, but this was new, for at the entrance to the police HQ was a man in a reddish brown stuffy winter coat waving around a machete and yelling, "THE DEMON! THE DEMON!"

Officers with them, drew their weapons, those who didn't and were brave enough, grabbed the brooms and mops from the janitors who ducked behind desks with the rookies too afraid to reveal their locations to their obviously troubled visitor. Officers rushed forward, one single janitor even gaining enough courage to throw a conveniently placed phonebook at the wildly waving and seriously sharp machete in the crazed man's hand as the gutsy officers in the force wrestled him to the ground. Dick found himself holding down one of the mad man's arms, unfortunately, it was the one reaching for the dropped weapon. Thankfully, a quick kick from Amy sent the blade out of the man's reach as another officer ran up and jammed a sedative into the guy's arm.

He had time to mumble a last few words in a gasp.

"Demon…BAT demon!"

Dick's inner persona of Nightwing stiffened at the muttering of the words.

All the other officers got to their feet, dusting off their clothes and grumbling.

"Drunk off his rocker."

"Insane madman."

"He's obviously high."

"Man's gone mental."

Dick went to pick himself up with the others when he saw something metal glint, something coming out of the man's sleeve and it was bloody. He swore under his breath and ripped the madman's right sleeve off. What he saw forced him to swallow back bile.

A bloody batarang, coated with a liquid that he could recall by the scent alone, although the sight of the silvery liquid also gave away it's identity to the others:

Liquid Mercury.

"Someone call an ambulance!" Amy shouted at one of the frightened rookies before she shooed the others away and slipped on a glove to pull out the batarang.

Grayson didn't need to be shocked, she was shocked enough for the both of them at this point. After bagging the evidence and directing the rapidly arrived medical team to the man's wound the strong willed woman grabbed her partner's arm and pulled him back into the commissioner's office. Their boss really should see to locking his door when he left. Amy closed the door behind the two and turned to rile up any facts from Dick Grayson, who she knew was Nightwing, when she found he was staring down and not back at her.

The grey cloaked form that they had assumed to be a child proved the fact as he reached up and grasped Dick's hand with almost crushing force as he now stood beside him. Dick himself knew very few children with that amount of strength. The kid was too short to be a teenager even. Dick crouched down and reached to push back the grey hood that had been covering the child's face and Amy schooled a flinch. When she had tried that she had gotten a cut across her wrist from the kid's nails that drew a fair amount of blood from the main vein.

"Careful," she warned.

The child didn't move a muscle and even held his breath.

The hood fell back and Dick gasped.

"Damian?"

The clock on the wall struck 9:00am.

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><p>Well, that's the update.<p>

~Moonsetta


	4. Chapter 4

Obviously, the first words out of Amy's mouth were, "You know this kid?"

"Uh," Dick was only able to breathe the word because he was trying to make sense of what was before him.

Damian was not glaring, he was not insulting him, he was just…staring up at him. Not to mention he was still grasping his hand with force enough to break an average person's bones. There wasn't a scowl or a frown on the boy's features either, just a strait, unemotional line of a mouth.

Dick let the hand that had pushed back the hood to rest on the boy's shoulder. Damian was likely to push it away if not attempt to cut it off completely.

The child did neither.

Which threw him for a loop.

"Hey Rookie!"

Dick started and glanced over at his partner who had a near impossible to accomplish expression on her face with depressed eyes of accusation, raised eyebrows of inquiry, and a scowl of contemplation.

"Who. Is. The. Kid." she asked again.

"He's uh…"

Crap. How was he supposed to word this?

"…my little brother."

Damian would kill him for that. No wait, _should _be killing him for that but-

Dick glanced back only to see no change in the boy's expression but a near nonexistent tightening of the grip on his hand.

OK. Damian was in Bludhaven. The number one question here was…Why?

Amy sighed long and harshly, "Alright, I assumed I shouldn't ask about extended family. I know about the Bat, but him?"

The cop/vigilante breathed a metal sigh of relief that the kid hadn't showed up in full decked out Robin-gear but still-

"Damian, what's going on? Why are you here?" Dick demanded, adding a bleeding of accusation into his voice as he spoke.

The boy continued to stand silently but finally moved his eyes from his previous mentor's eyes and onto his own feet.

"Maybe you should-" Amy began to suggest but the younger officer beat her to the punch, his Bat-Communicator was already out.

He grew _very_ concerned when the connection let out three shrill beeps and then a stream of static before a crackle shot out into the air.

The elder officer felt her eyes widen slightly, "Please tell me that's some kind of secret Morse code you "Bats" know?"

Dick smiled pathetically, "Uh…sorry?"

Then, Amy's face grew serious, "The kid, let me guess. He's supposed to be in Gotham, with your…father?"

"Well, yes-"

"Then this might have something to do with-"

The woman's statement was interrupted when both of their police radios went off.

"DRUG BUST ON SOUTH DOCK! CHIEF DOWN! REQUESTING BACK UP IMMEDIATELY!"

"10-4," Amy said quickly her eyes growing hard before turning to her partner at the sound of a catch of breath, the kid had reached out and gripped the material of Dick's shirt, refusing to let go.

She bit her lip as she threw the door back open and tossed the bagged, bloodied and liquid mercury coated batarang, on the floor by Grayson's side, "Take the kid back to your place."

She took a long pause before speaking quickly in effect of the yelling of the other officers outside, "Gotham's been in lock down for the past week."

"WHAT!"

The acrobat couldn't question her anymore, she was outside the HQ already with the other officers.

Dick ran a hand through his hair almost painfully. OK. First step, call and yell at Tim. Why hadn't he told him about Gotham being locked down yesterday? He needed answers, quickly.

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><p>It was with a defeated sigh that Dick left his motorcycle at police HQ and began the long walk back to his apartment. Although he was pretty confident from his experiences of jumping off of trains and landing safely on his feet, he didn't know what was wrong with Damian and he lacked two helmets, also given that his motorcycle's side car had been torn away and sunk in the harbor some months ago in an incident that involved one of the Penguin's plans of the transfer of fire arms to Blockbuster himself.<p>

Damian still hadn't released the death grip on his hand and interrogation earlier hadn't effected the boy in any way.

"There," the child breathed, his foot turning to point at a trash littered alley.

Wow. He got a word out of him. Of course, he had already picked up the six different breathing patterns hidden behind the random piles of debris in the shadows. He asked anyways-

"How many?"

He received no answer.

Of course, he was a well known officer in the BHPD walking around in his uniform, as the city was just getting up, into the lowest scum-filled area of the city with a ten year old kid trudging along beside him near shadow-laden alleyways.

Down to the bare bone-

He was just asking for trouble.

A broken and blinking street lamp up ahead gave him an idea though. Time a little "Bat-trick."

They both walked under the light as it flashed on. The deep breathing group responded back with the ruffling of cloth. They were going for their weapons.

The light flickered off and when it came on again, the group was left dumbstruck as the two figures they had planned on ambushing vanished.

"Hey! Where'd they go!"

"They couldn't a gone far."

"He's right. Find em!"

Up above, the Vigilante frowned with pity. Did so few people actually look up? Maybe people should look at rooftops more often. Well, maybe not. The Bats would lose their disadvantage in that sense. It wasn't until one the idiots below ran face first into a dumpster that Dick moved away from the edge of the building, deciding that he'd just cross rooftops until he reached his street. It was dangerous sure, but hey-he was him.

Then again-

He stopped and glanced back at Damian. The boy was still staring down at his feet. At some point he had pulled the hood back over his head as well. Sneaky assassin.

"OK Damian, I need answers. Why are you here and what's going on?"

He still didn't receive an answer. So he reached out and pulled the hood back again and then almost promptly jumped out of his own skin when the silver clouded blue eyes snapped up to meet his.

Wait, silver clouded?

Dick reached out and took a hold of the boy's chin pulling it up to tilt the boy's head back so the light of the early morning could slice through the orbs of color. When he saw a speck of orange beneath one of the clouds of gray he bit back a stream of curses as Damian took a step to the right and then the left.

Scarecrow's fear toxin. The symptoms were indefinitely similar to the ones he had observed the last time he had come upon one of Jonathan Crane's victims. So that was why Damian was well, like this.

Well, he had the antidote back at his apartment and it was only a few streets down anyways.

He pulled the boy along as they made their way back down onto the street. Dick wasn't sure if Damian was coherent enough to stand rooftop hopping, even if it would've made the morning a little more interesting. Not that it hadn't been interesting enough already. As soon as their feet touched the sidewalk again though, Dick thought back to the "visitor" the BHPD HQ had earlier.

A Bat-demon.

Was Batman here in Bludhaven and if so why-

A yank on his hand sent his mind off the road of his thoughts. He glanced down to find Damian staring almost strait up. He turned to look in the same direction. Sure damages to building were all too common but this was his apartment building and the apartment that was his alone-

The entire north wall of the small group of rooms had been torn away from the building, leaving the inside all too viewable to the people that had gathered below on the street. Everything inside had been torn to pieces.

Damian's grip on his hand tightened.

The bells of a distant clock tower sounded out, striking up chimes for 10:00am.

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><p>~Moonsetta<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Ok, after giving it some time and thought I decided to NOT remove this story.

Of you readers who want this story continued, you can thank Wolfram003 for the wonderful review that was posted.

Now for chapter 5, which will be short, like chapter 6 due to the drama that is going to happen afterwards. BTW I'm planning maybe-12 chapters.

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><p>It was an hour later that Dick found himself sitting on the back of an open door ambulance reassuring a panicking blonde paramedic, for the 11th time, that he and Damian hadn't been around when his apartment had been torn apart. It took another ten minutes but the two were finally left alone. Breathing a fresh breath of the now, only slight panicking air, the elder glanced back at the boy that had seated himself as far from him as possible.<p>

What was with Damian?

This was too weird.

"Grayson."

Dick turned his head and found, of all people, Amy Rohrbach looking back at him a few feet from the open ambulance. The woman's eyes darted to the wreckage above them and then she turned her head slightly as some debris fell from the higher floor and onto the pavement below as firemen and police ran all over the place, before she turned back to her partner.

"Who?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Dick shrugged one shoulder silently and spoke stoically, "It happened when I was at HQ."

Silence began to bleed between them until-

"Amy, about Gotham."

"Rohrbach! We found a body in the hallway!"

"Stay here!" Amy ordered the younger cop as Dick jumped to his feet.

"But-"

"Stay here!"

And she was off.

Great. Now what?

He didn't have to wait long, Amy returned in a few minutes, clutching a plastic bag with a kind of sorrow in her eyes, "Your landlady."

Dick Grayson just froze with a dropped jaw.

He heard his partner gulp before she held out the plastic evidence bag she had been clutching desperately at. Inside was an all too familiar Batarang, coated with what they all already knew was Liquid Mercury.

Bruce wouldn't do this.

That was one fact Dick was certain of. The crazy in the Police HQ some hours ago? Possibly. But not this.

"Amy, why has Gotham been in Lock Down, I can't reach the others," Dick demanded, rising to his feet and quickly snatching the plastic bag up.

Believing that she rightly should have smacked her partner upside the head for snatching the bag from her hand, Amy ignored that little voice in the back of her head and spoke quickly, "A bombardment of Fear Gas."

Dick's eyes widened slightly, "An all city attack by the Scarecrow."

He didn't need to make it a question at all.

"I thought you'd head there. I already looked into it, your "father" is in Gotham General. Comatose."

The world could've exploded in front of his eyes.

Dick Grayson wouldn't have noticed.

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><p>~Moonsetta<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

Now he had a problem-

Getting to Gotham city.

Given it normally wouldn't be a problem with the Bat-Cave's hi-tech transporter or even his bike. The problem was, he had a kid now and all Bat-Communications were down.

So, in the end, he had chosen to take a high rail train. A cab was out of the question simply because of the smell and taking the bus wasn't reliable at all, given how many times a day Bludhaven's buses were ransacked and damaged. Thankfully, he had been able to get into his torn-to-pieces apartment and recover a set of civilian clothes for himself and a new jacket for his ahem…little brother.

As lights danced across the opaque glass windows of the train Dick only sank down lower in his seat as he tried to fir out a plan in his head. The train couldn't drop anyone off at Gotham City Station but there was a station right outside the city's limits where most of the passengers planned to rent a car and continue on to the nearest city.

He heard Central City was nice this time of year…

The acrobat was so engulfed by his thoughts he didn't sense the child nearby move closer. It wasn't until he felt a small hand wrap around his arm that he could look back at the child.

Damian was nearly asleep.

Thankfully, Dick had managed to get the boy out of the hole-ridden and torn-up grey jacket he had been wearing before. The new one was a full body dark red. Of course, the elder hadn't needed to be a detective to catch the sight of the crudely wrapped bandages around the child's chest and arms. He had demanded Damian change them when he had seen them before, since they had returned to the police station in response to the destroyed apartment.

If he had to give one more statement to any other crime in the city-

Dick shook off his thoughts and fingered the empty vial in his pocket. The fear toxin was taking longer than usual to dissipate. It had been twenty minutes and well-

Call it big brother instincts, it was still affecting Damian, and the bandages alone that he had seen earlier, dirty, bloodied and made of rags, gave him enough revelation and reason to hunt down whoever had hurt the boy and freaking snap their arms off!

If only he could get answers!-

The man's thoughts were cut off when Damian's head fell against his arm, his eyes slowly falling shut.

The elder could only stare.

…

Aw! Where was a camera when you needed one? He would probably get his legs mangled for this by the kid later-

"Oh, whatever!" he thought, moving his arm so he was free to lay Damian's head in his lap.

In response, Damian curled up like the cats he liked under the large hooded jacket. What had Bruce honestly been thinking buying him a dog? (Though Titus sounded nice.) Placing a hand on the younger one's shoulder Dick looked back out the window. OK, focus drawn away from the creepy assassin child that could terminate you in a flash but yet was so…venerable at the moment.

His only hope of getting back into the city was through the Bat-Cave. If that entrance they had hidden around the city's limits was still open. Nightwing hadn't received any updates about their team's secret lair for some time. He quickly looked at his watch and sighed. Another hour and a half to go. He'd be asleep himself if he wasn't so worr- well, confused.

Hopefully, when he reached Gotham, he would get his answers. Which reminded him. If Gotham had been in lock-down for the past week, it made sense why he hadn't been told, he had been three galaxies away on that mission for the Justice League-Wait, no, as a favor to Superman. He was NOT in the Justice League and didn't plan to rejoin any time soon. So he'd done some things as Batman on the League for awhile back when Bruce had "been away" didn't mean he still wanted the "pleasure" of trying to organize all those heroes. He had been leaders of enough teams to know how they worked, both as a close knit family and ranks of soldiers, but there had still been the awkwardness of it all. Ordering around people near his age seemed fine and overlooking younger teams was as well, but in the Justice League, at that point he had been ordering around people twice to four times his age.

Yeah, that just spelled awkwardness. Out loud even!

Dick ran a hand through his hair. He hadn't been able to reach Tim again either. If he would've tried to contact Red Robin before he got on the train to Gotham he might have considered going to New York first to check on the previous Robin. Well, there was no turning back.

Well, no EASY turning back anyways. And he didn't have the energy or drive at the moment.

He simply leaned his head back against the glass window and closed his eyes, letting the outside lights dance across them.

Why was all of this happening?

Given he had a fair amount of time, Dick put together what he knew.

Gotham had been in lock-down, from what he was certain was a city wide attack by the Scarecrow, or at least someone using a new strand of his Fear Toxin.

Damian had been affected by it and in response had come to find him in Bludhaven.

No, that last one made no sense. Where was Bruce? Alfred? Stephanie? Cassandra? Barbra?

Why would Damian seek him out after being affected Scarecrow's fear toxin? Dick had made certain that the two of them became immune to the majority of the toxin's effects back in their Dynamic Duo days. Days that were admittedly, short-lived.

OK and why wouldn't anyone answer? He'd even gone as far to call Selina and Kitrina, Catwoman and Catgirl.

Like the others, no answer.

He continued contemplating all those thoughts for the rest of the trip. He nearly jumped for joy when the conductor said that they had reached the station outside Gotham city.

"Come on Damian wake up. We're here."

The child stirred slightly at the hand shaking his shoulder before shuddering and falling back into peaceful rest.

Wait, shuddering? This kid was capable of it?

Dick sighed, he'd had to use a large dose of the fear toxin antidote, which in itself was dangerous, but he had had little choice at that point. Damian would be out for a few hours. The elder frowned, took a deep breath and simply scooped the boy up. If Damian was conscious of this in any way, he was pretty sure the kid would've sliced his limbs if not his head off already.

Imagine his surprise when he exit's the train and comes face to face with an ally.

"Dick Grayson?"

Blue eyes tore away from the child in his arms and stuck to the form standing on the platform in front of him.

"Commissioner Gordon."

* * *

><p>More next time.<p>

Please review.

~Moonsetta


	7. Chapter 7

Raindrops with slight black shadows hit the pavement as Dick stared at what was left.

Wayne manor had been flattened.

"Son?"

"Who?"

A sigh escaped the one behind him, "We don't know. I got an emergency call from the butler but I all I got to hear was him shouting the kid's name in the background."

Dick turned slightly to glance inside the police cruiser and then at the guy who had given him a free pass into the city, "Commissioner, have there been any clues?"

"Why do you think I intercepted **you **outside of the city? It's a good thing the kid was with you, though I don't know how he escaped the city and got all the way to Bludhaven."

"He was hit by Scarecrow's fear toxin, it's a new strand."

"Strange, I didn't think the bombardment shells of fear toxin made it all the way to here. It's certainly quite a ways from the main part of the city and there were no traces found in Wayne or his butler."

"Alfred!" Dick cursed himself mentally for missing the first mention of the man's name.

"He's the same as Wayne, completely comatose at Gotham General… I really should be getting the kid there too."

Blue eyes glanced inside the windshield of the police cruiser nearby and the younger man nodded at the sight of the figure still curled up in a sleeping but seemingly restless state, "Yes, of course. He should be with his father."

Gordon opened his mouth to speak, thought better of it and shook his head before deciding to mention something else, "No other teams are coming up tonight."

The commissioner started back towards the car, mentally wincing at how much paperwork he would have to go over for the emergency teams that had been crawling all over the debris of the manor hours previously. Once at the door of his cruiser, he looked back at the onyx haired man who was walking towards the fallen home. OK, he assumed the guy wasn't coming.

"Tell me if you find anything those simple-minded idiots missed!"

"Yeah, I will!" Dick shouted back, at least attempting to sound indifferent.

"By the way, checked your status at the BHPD HQ, nice move back in March with that gang detective!"

Dick straitened up as he heard tires screech and the cruiser pull away. Detective? Was Amy still pulling that cover story out of thin air? He was not a detective! The acrobat shook away his thoughts and continued on navigating his way through the debris of one of the places he had called home.

Who would want to destroy the Manor?

Well, a lot of people. That didn't narrow down his suspects much.

OK, perhaps the better question would be:

Who COULD destroy the Manor?

A very distinct number of extremely distinct people.

Could this have been Scarecrow? Dick looked back onto the horizon where he could see the cityscape of Gotham in the distance. The city's population was recovering. Thank goodness the police stations and hospitals scattered throughout Gotham had stocked up the fear toxin's antidote. No doubt, the toxin was already gone from the mainstream air…

Now sure that he was completely alone, Dick took out his Bat-Communicator.

"…"

Static. He needed to get to the Bat-Cave below. Well, if that entrance behind the Manor was still open…

He hadn't needed to go any further than the side of the Manor to find that the entrance no longer existed. Bruce must have sealed it. The hero pushed a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. Any internal entrances to the Bat Cave where stopped up by debris or had been automatically sealed had the defense system been activated when the place was torn apart. Now what? Maybe he should head off after Gordon-

No, he needed to look around first, not just the Manor, but the city as well. See if he could find anyone. The Bat-Communicator went back into his pocket and he reached for the fold of his shirt. Good thing he had worn his costume beneath his normal clothes. It was time for Nightwing to do his own detective work, because now the hero needed answers.

* * *

><p>Creeping through trees was quite a fun activity for a mischievous little boy, of course, for this hero, it was an ideal way to get back to the city by jumping down silently on a passing bus acting as an ambulance for the city. He bet those bus drivers had been high in demand for the past week. The ride back to the city was a quiet one, except for the whimpers coming from those in the bus that had been affected. OK, that was important. This bus was picking up victims quite away from the main part of the city, so the bombardment of fear gas HAD reached the outskirts of Gotham so it's very possible that the gas had been in the atmosphere of Wayne Manor.<p>

Then again, why had Damian been affected but Bruce and Alfred hadn't?

Unless…well, he knew that it was a new strand.

Uh, he was getting a headache! Only goes to prove the statement, if detective work was easy, everyone would be doing it.

Nightwing ducked, to manage not to get his head knocked off by a low tree branch. The city had to be about ten minutes away. Couldn't this hunk of junk go any faster? If only he could transport his motorcycle nearby, but even if he did call it- it would take it quite a few hours to reach Gotham, if a rider-less motorcycle could even get past the lock down defenses in place around the city.

Well, he had nothing more to do for ten more minutes.

What if the new strand couldn't be picked up with the commonplace tests?

No, the people would know that, given the medical facilities were covering the care of the city's entire population. Then again, if they were judging the affected by how they acted or how their eyes looked, the most primitive observation, then there might not have been any blood tests done at all.

Uh! This was only leading to more questions. He'd need to talk to Gordon later, as Nightwing. No doubt people were wondering where Batman was at the moment.

Too many problems, he needed answers and he needed help. If only:

The Titans?

The JLA?

The Outsiders?

The Birds of Prey?

The JSA?

Even if he did call though, no one was getting into Gotham city unless their presence was absolutely necessary, he had assured himself of that when he had seen the barricades around the city limits as Gordon had driven him in. Dick wasn't sure why he had personally qualified, maybe because he had Damian, but then the commissioner couldn't have known that until he had seen Dick with the kid. Then again, why question it? Having an ally at the head of the police force sure helped at many instances.

_Crash!_

The hero looked up at a just collapsed building at the edge of the inner city. Finally, time to take to the rooftops! Jumping off of the top of the bus and releasing his grapple to latch onto a nearby light pole he heard gasps as his feet left the surface of the bus. The people inside the city's bus had spotted him.

"Was that the Bat?"

No wonder the buses were being used. They weren't just rounding up the victims, they were collecting everyone. Detective skills or not he knew that meant one thing about Jonathan Crane.

His feet hit the rooftop of a gone out of business supermarket as the thought came to him.

Scarecrow hadn't been captured, he was still on the loose. They city was expecting ANOTHER attack.

In his book, this was not turning out to be even remotely, a good day.

First things first. He needed to find some of the Bat-Clan.

He needed an ally.

As he swung around a clock tower, his eyes went to the slightly rusted, giant hands of it.

A chime sounded out. It was 10:00pm.

* * *

><p>~Moonsetta<p> 


	8. Chapter 8

Dick frowned worriedly at he walked away from the apartment that had recently been owned by Kate Kane, Batwoman. It was a double vision of his own apartment, everything had been torn apart with only **one** prominent difference-

He had found traces of blood all over the kitchen floor, the crimson easily standing out with the plasma running between the cracks of the floor tiles.

The question here evolved to the simple problem of: If Kate had been attacked in the kitchen, there would have been some visible damage to the tiles.

Yet there wasn't any.

Detective skills perhaps were deeply ingrained in the hero as he stopped, turned and glanced back at the building, studying the fairly large sized bay window that lead into the quaint dining room. It had been open and the only entrance to the kitchen was through the dining room. The rest of the house had been torn to pieces but was this because the intruder had been searching for the woman or had he found her, injured her with the least amount of effort and then trashed the place for fun?

He certainly wouldn't put THAT past any of Gotham's crazies.

With a defeated sigh, the acrobat turned away once again and stared at a glass walled tower across the road. All the lights in all of the rooms were dark, but the light from the surrounding, still working street lights allowed him a glance at the building he was standing on. This used to be a candy factory...

He shook off the thought of suddenly wanting something sweet and fired off his grapple to continue scouring the night. He needed to find someone.

His feet left the rooftop and he thought that maybe he should go see Gordon, but would he still be at the hospital or back at the Police HQ? He hadn't seen the commissioner out on the streets, though he had seen and helped out plenty of police officers and had always been swinging off immediately afterwords.

There was little to no time to accept the gratitude that they gave him.

Maybe Gordon could tell him-

Nightwing's thoughts didn't need to exist in another moment, because the Bat-Signal suddenly lit up the sky. That was his call. He swung up onto a high fire escape and quickly threw himself up onto the slanted rooftop.

Fun.

He raced across the first rooftop, raising his hand to shoot off his grapple to the next building but-

"AHHH!"

He stumbled and cursed under his breath. He turned from the signal in the sky and looked towards the not too distant east side of Gotham City. His jaw nearly dropped as he heard automatic gunfire. As quickly as he had crossed the roof, he was off of it and silently praying that he found no more innocents dead tonight. His last collaboration with a police squad downtown had ended with a Father without his sons.

Dick tried not to think about it too much.

Adrenaline had been his constant companion for the day and the evening, so it didn't take him long to reach the back road where he heard the clipping of bullets into the pavement. When his eyes rested on who was below he gave a mental sigh of the greatest relief.

It was Selina, Catwoman.

Finally!

"Catgirl, a runaway!"

Catgirl? Selina was still training Kitrina?

Nightwing's masked eyes easily spotted the runner that the feline once-thief pointed out. It wasn't long until the small form of Kitrina Falcone was running after him after dropping down from the rooftop of a lower building. Her claws were already out and ready to slice.

The acrobat's eyes widened when he saw the runner reaching into his coat pocket.

Idiotic girl, she couldn't see!

He ran across the three rooftops that was separating him from the two and jumped down, knocking the gun from the runner's hand just as he had turned to shoot down the girl. Catgirl fell back at first but then recognized the sight of the other hero in just enough time to bend forward and launch her clawed gloves at the guy's face. In response, the guy both dropped the weapon and fell backwards, effectively knocking himself out once his skull hit the pavement.

"I had that!" she complained.

"Sure right."

"So you're still alive?"

Nightwing turned just to come face to face with Catwoman, whose eyes were half surprise and half suspicion. Eh, Bruce's relationship with the woman never made sense to him, but hey, she did take down Black Mask.

"Selina what is going on?"

The frown that fell over her lips and small flare in the woman's eyes made him almost step back in that uncertainty sense that guys fell into when they unintentionally insulted a girl. Almost that is. If he wasn't so concerned with what was going on.

Selina sighed and reached up to remove the goggles that hid her eyes at long distances, before she half glared at the younger hero, "Where have YOU been?"

"The Strata II galaxy, now what is going on?" Nightwing returned her glare.

The woman's eyes grew momentarily before glancing away.

"I'll tell you," Catgirl said, sliding in between her mentor and the man that she had only recently found out had been Batman when she had started her crime fighting career.

She threw a worried glance at her mentor before glancing around and then promptly pulling off her own mask, "It started just yesterday."

"What started?"

"We saw the Red Hood right before he was supposedly dragged off. We think he was the first."

"What, Jason is gone too!"

Kitrina nearly sneered, "The idiot had been shooting at Batman and Robin. When the bird got clipped by some of the bullets we were told to chase after him."

_Bullets. _

Maybe the bandages Damian had had on him? But if he had been hurt out here and the police had gotten the emergency call from the Manor then how-?

"We chased him down this very back road and the next thing we heard was him screaming. We found some traces of blood, but we never saw him again. We've all been kind of busy with Scarecrow's attack on the city."

A hand on Kitrina's head silenced her, but she grew confused on why the guy wanted her to suddenly be quiet.

The call from the Manor. Wait! **Alfred **was the one who had made the call, what if his call to Damian that Gordon had mentioned was him trying to _find _Damian?

So he hadn't been looking for Bruce because why?

The two hadn't made it back to the Manor if the girl's story was true.

Just to prove it to himself, Nightwing glanced up at Selina, "Is this true?"

She nodded and then looked to ground, suddenly looking as if she was about to cry.

Crap! Not good!

"When we got back, Bruce and his Little Bird were gone."

Wait! When had she started calling Damian, Little Bird? Well, they'd probably get along, Damian did like cats.

That's when the strange fact hit him. Bruce's relationship with Catwoman and Damian liking cats.

Oh my goodness! It was genetic!

The acrobat shook off the weird thought, deciding to store it away and share it at a more appropriate time.

"There was blood there too. We don't know what's happened to anyone," Kitrina spoke up again, pushing off the hand on her head and pulling on her mask again, "Black Bat, Batwoman, the Red Hood, Batgirl, Batman, Robin, Huntress and Man-Bat all dissapeared. Selina was relieved to hear about Bruce showing up at Gotham General."

Well, that certainly decreased the number of his possible allies.

"But it doesn't make sense," Selina muttered, "He was found as Bruce at Wayne Manor."

"Whoever did this was probably following them," Catgirl said, kicking at the head of an unconscious gang member at her feet and knocking off his red hat.

The Medici gang weren't the best of fighters but good financiers, probably how they got the arms that they had on them.

"No, he or she attacked them where you left them ," Nightwing said and gave a small smile in return to the nod from the older feline vigilante.

Katrina put her hands on her hips, "How do you know?"

"Because I found Robin. The bandages he had covering his wounds were made of rags. If they had gotten back to the Cave and Manor, they would've been real bandages, not ripped up t-shirts and stained cloth. He was also infected with Scarecrow's fear toxin."

"Is he OK?" Selina asked hopefully and then grumbling as one of the men below reached out and tried to grab at a nearby gun.

In response, she used her whip to grab the gun and toss it far away while Catgirl stomped her boot down on the guy's throat muttering, "Do you mind? We're trying to have a conversation here. People can be so inconsiderate at times you know?"

"He's fine. Somehow he escaped and came to Bludhaven to find me," Nightwing explained, aiming his own kick to the guy's head to knock him unconscious.

"But no one has gotten in or out of Gotham for a week. Batman even told the League to stay out of it," Catwoman said.

Oh great! Thanks old man!

Out of the corner of his eye, Nightwing noticed that the Bat-Signal was still shining against the cloudy evening sky. When his head followed his eyes to it, the felines followed his gaze as well.

"What about the Cave?" Selina asked, slipping back on her goggles since she could just feel it in the air, the other hero wanted to get to police HQ fast.

"Completely sealed, no doubt a security feature."

"Why would Bruce do that?"

"Well, it would most likely be in case of an intruder-"

Oh crap! That was it! Why didn't he see it before?

An intruder! That's what had happened at the Manor! That could've happened through the Bat-Cave or an entrance to the Manor. Whoever was after the Bats knew who Batman was!

This was bad.

"Let's go," Nightwing said, shooting off his grapple towards the nearest rooftop.

"Let's?" Catgirl asked before her mentor's hand landed on her shoulder.

"Yes, we should stick together now."

"But he should know about Spoiler."

That made the acrobat recall his grapple and swiftly turn back to them, "What? Stephanie?"

He hadn't realized that they hadn't mentioned her previously.

"She's at my place," Selina explained quickly, "Stephanie was attacked just a few hours ago. We got her back to my place and then came out to try to find anyone else."

"That's when you dropped in," Catgirl piped in, finishing up their tale.

"Uh, bad, very bad," Nightwing groaned, "Stephanie's in danger. There's a possibility that whoever is behind this knows who we all are."

"What do we do?" Catwoman asked, her eyes going back and forth between the young hero standing before her, the pathway across the north rooftops to her place and the direction of the Bat-Signal.

"You head to the police HQ," Katrina said, "We'll stick together and go back for the blonde. Whoever it is, they can't take us down if we stick together."

The air grew still and silent as Nightwing raised his head, his eyes obviously glaring even behind his mask, "We can't."

"Why not?" Catgirl asked, almost ready to throw a child-like fit.

Nightwing turned around quickly and caught something in his hand and the cats gasped in unison at the statement from his lips, "Because we're being watched."

* * *

><p>I know that many people aren't familiar with Kitrina Falcone, Catgirl, but she <strong>is<strong> a cannon DC character who I rather liked and her presence helped support the fact that Catwoman is still around. Selina was the only hero/vigilante who wasn't alone or in the case of Batman and Robin, didn't have a partner that was injured. That's helped them in this situation.

You review more, I update more and faster.

~Moonsetta


	9. Chapter 9

"MOVE!"

On the acrobat's call, the cats jumped backwards and to opposite sides, while Nightwing jumped for the rooftops. He ran as fast as he could towards the distant shine on the shadow. Something was reflecting light on them!

As soon as he reached the shadow drenched figure though, it jumped back and up onto another rooftop.

This guy was good!

The acrobat took the minute moment to swing out his grapple and follow them up and across a few more rooftops. Nightwing wasn't blind to the fact that as soon as his feet hit the third rooftop that his breaths were coming out in shallow gasps. Barely noticeable of course, so he'd keep going. He wasn't dead yet.

The figure kept running, but there-!

The shadow stumbled and the hero took the opportunity, shooting out his grapple and catching the enemy by their foot. Dick heard the tear of cloth and flesh, but he didn't get to contemplate it for long because the enemy tore the wire from their leg and jumped into a darkened alley.

It was always a creepy dark alley with these guys and the so called criminal-geniuses always used abandoned warehouses either by the docks or outside the city. Couldn't criminals do anything new?

He was quick to follow as he swung his grapple around to catch the top of a nearby light pole. Who was this?

Silence was Nightwing's only answer as he landed in the center of the alleyway. Everything was deadly silent, even to his sensitive Bat-hearing. Whoever that had been-he was gone.

Cursing mentally, the hero breathed a deep breath and retracted his grapple line, but he stopped it when he noticed that there was a stain of blood on the edge of the hook.

Dick smirked. Instant ID!

"Nightwing!"

The guy glanced up just as the black themed felines landed behind him.

"Alright, how come the Bats can run faster than us?" Catgirl asked.

"Where are they?" Catwoman asked, her whip already out.

"Whoever they are, they're long gone. Relax."

"Who the heck is this guy?" Kitrina said while stomping her pink booted foot against the mix of pavement and dirt below them.

"I don't know," Dick said, "I know how to find out though."

With that he held up the end of his grapple, the blood was easy to spot.

"We still need to go get Spoiler."

Nightwing sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Only if we could get there fast."

The blue and black clothed hero turned to see the Bat-Signal still shining against the clouds of the night.

"What about the Batmobile?"

Dick turned to stare at the young girl in shock, "The Batmobile?"

"That's why I know that Batman and Robin didn't go back to the Manor, at least, not on their own," Selina explained, "The Batmobile is still out from their last patrol of the city, parked by Crime Alley."

Ugh, that place, but still, this did give them a slight advantage. For only a moment, Nightwing looked back down at the object that he had caught earlier, still grasped in his left hand was a Batarang-coated with Mercury. This wasn't Batman, or at least, this wasn't Bruce Wayne.

"Let's go!"

"We get to ride in the Batmobile? Sweet," Kitrina said with smirking eyes.

Catwoman rolled her eyes behind her goggles. What was she going to do with this kid?

Good thing the visiting hero knew how to overcome the lock-down security system to the Bat-themed vehicle.

Always good.

* * *

><p>Retrieving Spoiler had been easy and simple. Trying to get to police HQ with the buses driving all over the city was another thing. The jets on the previously flying Batmobile had been spayed, so Dick had readjust the normalcy of driving it on the ground other than in the air. What he would've done for a flying Batmobile when he was Robin...<p>

"Her breathing's back to normal," Catgirl reported from the back.

Yeah, the physical state of Stephanie was- well, the acrobat would have to reflect later. They were at police HQ now.

Nightwing ordered the felines to remain the Batmobile while he took to scaling the building; once his feet left the ground he heard the soft scoff from Catwoman.

"You're just like him."

_Bruce. _

Crap. It had just occurred to him that he'd have to make an appearance at Gotham General later as Dick Grayson and that meant-uh, the paparazzi. His stomach was already turning.

He landed on the high rooftop in his quiet way and slightly shivered silently, when he glanced up, he saw that Gordon was alone, his back to the hero.

"He's not here."

The man jumped and spun around, his eyes going wide beneath his hat, "Son, do you mind not doing that to an aging man?"

"You're not that old," Nightwing said with a smirk before his mouth fell back down into a neutral line, "I need to know what you do."

"The same to you son, I haven't heard about you from anyone for a few weeks. You just now showed up."

The blue and black clothed hero walked closer, his neutral, strait-lined mouth falling into a frown, "I was in the Strata II galaxy, a mission for the Justice League."

"I thought you weren't in the League."

Dick hoped his mask hid the twitching of his right eye, "It was a favor for Superman, but it's not important at the moment. What's happened to Gotham?"

"Scarecrow."

"So I've deduced."

"You take after him well."

The hero tightened one hand into a fist, why was everyone comparing him to his first mentor? It must be a conspiracy; they were obviously out to get him.

"Scarecrow's attack happened exactly seven days and eight hours ago."

Dick remembered the clock he had passed previously; it must currently be near midnight, which means Scarecrow attacked in broad daylight!

"Yeah, I can tell by your face that you got it."

Crap. Maybe he should think about redesigning his mask. Oh well, time for that later.

"It sure surprised us," Gordon continued while stepping over to the Bat-Signal light and turning it off, "I didn't know what to do. Especially since Barbara's went missing like a few dozen others in the city."

"Who all is missing?"

Gordon smirked, "I knew you would ask that."

From inside his coat, the commissioner pulled out a large filing folder, stuffed with papers. Did he have a freaking giant pocket inside that thing? The scene's hero wasted no time in taking the folder and scanning the pictures inside over.

Barbara Gordon-Batgirl.

Kate Kane-That he knew indefinitely. Batwoman.

Dr. Langstrom-Man-bat.

The other civilian identities of the Bat-Clan followed. He'd have to get Spoiler into the hospital as Stephanie ASAP, but then, why the others that followed in the mash-up?

The owner of a gardening store.

A hotel manager.

Some homeless people.

A baker from a local cupcake factory.

Even a shoemaker.

What was this guy's game?

The elder must have seen the confusion on the hero's face, "Yeah, it makes no sense to me either. When I got back from the hospital, my daughter was gone and our place was trashed."

When Nightwing glanced back up he only watched in sad sympathy as the guy ran a hand through his grey hair. It must have been because Barbara was on the list now.

"I'll do what I can. In the meantime, it's better if you remain here."

Gordon glanced towards the ground, took a deep breath and then looked back up. The hero was gone, and the folder was sitting atop the now off Bat-Signal.

"Things never change."

* * *

><p>Nightwing slipped back into the Batmobile with a huff. What in the world was going on?<p>

"What'd he say?" Kitrina asked instantly.

A look from her mentor made Catgirl sink back into the back seat. She glanced to each side at the air, and then she reached out over to the violet costumed vigilante beside her to feel for a pulse. It was still weak.

"What's the plan now?" Catwoman asked.

"You, your protégé and Spoiler there will have to show up in you civilian forms at Gotham General. I'll drop you off so you can keep an eye on Stephanie and then I'll join you later once I find somewhere to keep the Batmobile."

"OK."

At least the felines weren't fighting him on this, though Selina seemed awfully disturbed into silence.

The run to the hospital was a quick one and as Nightwing was observing the below scene on a nearby rooftop, watching doctors run out and rush Stephanie inside, he had the sudden urge to look in on his own family. He hoped Damian was alright-

And he still didn't know how fully Bruce and Alfred were hurt. Maybe if he just slipped in for a moment-

The sounds of gunfire exploded in the distance.

So much for that plan.

Dick turned away from the hospital and dove off the side of the roof. He'd need to find a hotel somewhere after he found a secure location for the Batmobile. But where?

The Batcave was sealed and his own previous-

Wait! That could be it!

The top of the Batmobile closed just as the idea hit him.

Wayne Tower! He and Damian had moved there from the manor when they had been the Dynamic Duo. Perhaps Bruce hadn't closed it down yet, but then again, that sounded exactly what Bruce would do, quite quickly in fact. Well, at this point, it may be his only single chance.

Gunfire exploded again nearby.

OK, after he stops this act of violence.

* * *

><p>Running around in a skin tight blue and black costume and beating criminals in the darkest of night to a squirming, melted pile of goo?<p>

Sure! He was on it!

Showing up as the eldest child of Gotham's local geocentric billionaire at the hospital at this time?

Please no.

Unfortunately, Dick didn't have much of a choice when he walked up to the hospital doors and a large group of vulture-looking reporters spotted him. One woman ran up a bit faster than the others, sporting a black business skirt and top and nearly shoving her microphone down the poor guy's throat.

"Dick Grayson have you received any word about the condition of Bruce Wayne?"

Another microphone jutted out towards him, some tanned skin fellow.

"When did you receive word of this happening?"

And another-

"Are you currently in a relationship with one of your fellow officers in the BHPD?"

What the hell?

"Boxers or briefs?"

What!

He tried to hide the eye twitch as he walked through the crowd. Ignore them…

"Would you recommend young boys grow up to be police officers?"

Ignore them.

"That's enough questions!" a voice yelled from behind the group.

Thank goodness it was the Bats' Doctor, thank you Dr. Leslie.

The elderly woman, who had been the insured doctor of the Bat-Clan for years on end, pushed her way towards the hero and yanked him through a doorway into the back hallways.

"Where are they?" were the first words out of Dick's mouth.

"Follow me," Leslie said with a sigh, "I assume you're going to tell me where you've been for the past few weeks."

"The Strata II Galaxy."

Did he have to make a billboard and hang it around his neck? If people kept asking him-

"You're here."

He hadn't even noticed that they had reached the room so quickly and in the doorway was Selina Kyle, Catwoman.

That's when an old lightning bolt struck Dick's mind and he mentally cursed for it not coming to him sooner, "Where's Damian?"

And initiate the worried but pissed off older brother look.

"He's still sleeping, two doors down."

He doubted that. Dick's blue eyes followed where Leslie was pointing and nodded thanks. The doctor nodded and left the bird and cat alone.

"Where's Kitrina?"

"Inside."

"How are they?

Selina closed her eyes with a silent sigh, "They're alive."

The cat moved to the side and Dick felt a sudden pull on his mind. If Selina and Kitrina were watching Bruce and Alfred then he really should check on Damian first, the boy was alone at the moment. Gritting his teeth, the acrobat glanced inside the room long enough to acknowledge that Bruce and Alfred were inside and indeed alive, but completely out of reality at the same time.

Comatose. Definitely.

"I'm going to go check on Damian, you and Kitrina stay with Bruce and Alfred."

The cat nodded sharply and Dick turned away from the room, favoring the room two doors down. Of course when he opened the door, he shouldn't have been surprised. The boy that he remembered was sitting up on the hospital bed, legs crossed, and staring at the ground.

Had the fear toxin been cleared from his system yet or-?

"It's about time you got here Grayson."

The younger jerked his head up swiftly and glared at the man in the doorway.

Despite the burn that came with it, Dick felt an instant wave of relief. Damian was back to normal. Although, it looked more like Damian wanted answers from him now.

"I've been waiting for two hours. Where the hell were you?"

"Scouring the city for whoever is doing this."

The boy on the hospital bed sat up strait and moved his legs so they were hanging off of the side. Dick took it as an invitation to cross the room and sit down next to him.

"Damian I need to know. What's happened?"

"Why do you even care? You haven't been here."

Damian kept glaring and crossed his arms over his chest. Dick just smiled slowly and reached out to ruffle the boy's head. The kid slapped his hand away afterwards.

"Grayson, if you do that again I will disembowel you!"

Dick laughed quietly. Same old Damian. He hadn't changed a bit.

Alright, a compromise then.

"A few weeks ago, Superman asked me to lead a team on Glandton Five, in the Strata II galaxy in their Galactic War."

"I thought you quit the Justice League."

Dick huffed and cross his arms over his chest, mirroring the boy in front of him, "It was a favor to Superman."

"Right, you obviously didn't read the letters I sent you."

The letters! That was right, due to all his missions with he never did get to read ANY of his mail.

"They had my suspicions in those letters. My father started acting…strange. He wasn't paying attention to Gotham and I started noticing an odd wave of crime by the Scarecrow. I knew he was going to try something."

"And Bruce was-"

"I don't know!" Damian shouted and Dick had this parental urge to tell him to be quiet since they were in the hospital.

Maybe the younger read it on his face because the younger stopped shouting, "He kept leaving the Manor and the city and wouldn't tell me, his partner, anything."

The elder hero frowned in sad sympathy and reached out to rest a hand on the younger's shoulder. It would be a stupid move for anyone who Damian didn't respect. Thankfully, the elder kept his arm attached.

"And when you two were chasing Jason with the cats?"

Damian's frown changed to a scowl, "They already told me what happened when you showed up."

Dick sighed. So while a few questions were answered but there a few points he needed to still make clear.

"After Catwoman and Catgirl left you two, what happened?"

"I don't know, that's when I was nearly unconscious," Damian huffed and fell back onto the pillow, "I know my Father was fighting something though. Then everything just got…twisted."

Twisted? Probably Damian's version of frightening.

Wait! Fright-

"The Fear Toxin," Dick muttered.

OK. There was no way that this was all done by the Scarecrow. Jonathan Crane was NOT capable of doing all this. At least, he wasn't capable of accomplishing all of this on his own. He must be working with someone else. It would also explain why that mad man back in Bludhaven had been scared/crazy out of his wits. The fear toxin was connected to the Mercury-coated Batarang then. He'd have to analyze the Mercury substance. He was now certain that he would find traces of the Scarecrow's Fear Toxin within it.

"Any other questions?"

The young boy was only half-glaring at him now.

OK. So the boy didn't know much either, but it didn't answer some questions. Very few, but some nonetheless. Only one more thing was a curiosity to the elder hero though-

"One more question."

Damian's gaze transformed back into a glare, "What?"

"I can only assume that you were hit with one of those Mercury coated Batarangs this guy was using."

The boys eyes grew slightly, yep he remembered that much at least, "Yeah. So?"

"I know how the toxin affects its victims. It's rare you're capable of rational thought, but you obviously were rational enough to get out of Gotham and make your way to Bludhaven."

"Tt. Obviously. Are you going to get to the point Grayson?"

"Why did you choose to come find me instead of calling someone else for help?"

That caused the boy to freeze for a few moments and his blue eyes grew slightly yet again, "I-I don't know. You were reliable I guess."

Up went one of his eyebrows.

"Look, I knew you and Father had some awkward times but you always came around to help when he asked. You're so nice you probably rescue cats from trees in Bludhaven."

"Well…"

"Shut it. I knew I could count on you to help but I sent the letters because I- I didn't want to appear…irrational at jumping to conclusions."

Dick smiled and reached out and ruffled the boy's hair again.

Damian growled under his breath, "You better sleep with your eyes open."

That's when the door opened and Doctor Leslie walked in, "May I talk with you Dick?"

The man nodded, smiled a last grin at his 'baby brother' and visually scanned the window. It wouldn't hurt to leave for just a few moments, right? No, he shouldn't take the chance.

"Go stay with Selina and Kitrina."

Strangely, the kid didn't even protest, just did as he was told.

* * *

><p>I apologize, I wanted to make this longer, but I pulled a muscle in my right arm, it's burning and laptops aren't designed for my left-handedness.<p>

~Moonsetta


	10. Chapter 10

"Follow me," Leslie spoke quickly, leading Dick to a back hallway and up a flight of stairs.

Confused, Dick raised an eyebrow as soon as their feet slapped against the tiles of the second floor of the hospital.

"How much do you know?" the elderly woman asked as she turned back to the man whose injuries she had treated since he had been a young boy.

"Oh," Dick breathed and ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to distress the knot of information all tangled up in his brain, "I know that whoever this is, is after all of us, possibly knows who we are and as far as I know, has gotten every one of us that isn't in this hospital currently. By the way, I need this ID."

The hero pulled the hook of his cable that had been stained with the person's blood from his pocket and handed it to Leslie.

"What about the cave, or the bunker?"

Here, the man sighed, "All the entrances to the cave around the Manor have been caved in or sealed and the bunker-"

He remembered when he had checked in on his old HQ. Thankfully, he had still been able to access it and hide the Batmobile inside but-

"I could blame the torn and severed state of the wires on invading rats and mice but the internal damage to the machinery was definitely someone with a motive. The Batmobile is on high lock down for the time being."

"Oh my," Leslie breathed.

A silence settled between the two for a few seconds.

"Dick, what are we going to do?"

The acrobat narrowed his eyes in determination, "I'm going back out there."

"You can't go alone!" the doctor protested.

"I'll have to. Damian just woke up, there's no guarantee that the toxin's completely gone from his system, Bruce and Alfred are still comatose, and our cat duo have been running around for a strait 48 hours without sleep, and from the looks of it, you've gone a bit longer."

Leslie smiled slowly and wiped at the cover up under her eyes, dark shadows revealed themselves, "Selina said it would work."

Doctor Leslie and Selina Kyle/Catwoman sharing beauty tips.

NOW he had seen everything.

Dick just shook his head, "I'm not going to question that. Just," his voice dropped a few decibels, "I just need you to look after everyone here."

"I will Dick, don't worry about that. This ID will have to wait until tomorrow, that's the only time I'll be able to sneak around security."

The hero nodded sharply, "Now I have to go."

"There," Leslie said, pointing out a nearby window to a fire escape on the next building.

"Perfect," Dick said with a smirk.

"But please see the others before you leave and if you're going to be running around the city be careful. I may be a woman of medical science but I just have this bad feeling that-"

A hand on her shoulder stopped her sentence and she looked up into a bright smile, "Don't worry, I'm going back to the Manor to look around some more. I don't plan to scour the city for the rest of the night. If I'm not back by 2:00am, take the others and go see Commissioner Gordon. Tell him Nightwing sent you."

With that, he turned to the window, opened it and jumped across the space that separated him from the next building's fire escape. In less than three seconds he was ascending the fire escape, attempting to get to its rooftop.

Back in the hospital, Doctor Leslie looked on with sad eyes, "Be careful boy."

With a last breath, she closed the window, backed up to the staircase that had lead her and her companion to the second floor and took out a remote from her lab coat pocket. She pressed the object's single green button and the camera in the hallway turned to the window.

Thank goodness she could display freeze frames on every camera in the building for as long as she wished.

Silently, she slipped the remote back into her pocket; put the bloodstained hook in a plastic bag before inserting it into an inside pocket and she went back downstairs.

* * *

><p>Kitrina yawned and stretched her arms up towards the ceiling before glancing over at the prone figures lying comatose on the beds. Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth were as silent and unmoving as stone statues. She chanced a glance at her mentor and followed the woman's gaze to the child sitting on a chair beside the bed.<p>

Damian was asleep.

For the girl, it was awfully boring. She wished they were still out in the city, what good did sitting around here do? Sure she was a bit tired but she was more bored just sitting here. The girl considered turning around from where she was sitting by the window and gazing out to see if there were any bad guys around the perimeter of the building but that would probably be 'dangerous' as the adults put it. So she just sighed and leaned back against the window.

Tip-tap!

She heard the small sound and felt the vibrations through the glass. Selina looked up as well when she turned to draw back the curtain. Imagine the cats' surprise at the sight of Nightwing hanging in front of the window.

Kitrina scowled and opened the window, "Where have you been?"

"Seeing about an ID on that blood," he answered her truthfully.

The blue and black clothed hero's eyes scanned over the people inside, his eyes dropping at the ones unconscious at the moment. For some strange reason he felt that they looked cold. Pushing the random thought out of his mind, the acrobat handed over two small earphone communicators to Kitrina.

"Listen, I need to find a way to the Batcave."

"You can't go out there alone," Selina said and then grew silent when Damian shifted slightly in his sleep.

Thankfully he settled down again into a peaceful sleep and they all breathed silent sighs of relief.

"I'm just heading back to the Manor. If there's any chance to get back into the cave, the entrances there will be the ones I'm most familiar with and I might find some clues. You all stay together; use the communicators to stay in touch with me."

With that, the hero swung off into the night.

"That guy is going to get killed," Kitrina said with a huff while crossing her arms over her chest, "I bet he doesn't even have a clue what he's doing."

"He never does. That idiot."

The felines turned at the voice and noticed that Damian was sitting up strait, wide awake.

That sneaky little assassin!

The youngest got to his feet and walked towards the window before turning back towards the others with a glare, "I'm going after him, unless one of you is going to try to stop me."

Selina just tilted her head with a smirk, "Go after the 'idiot' and make sure he doesn't lose an arm or something."

The newest Boy Wonder smirked and left via the window.

"How come he gets to leave!"

And Kitrina's protest was the last thing Damian Wayne heard before he was climbing the fire escape of the next building and flipping up to the rooftop.

* * *

><p>Dick found himself waiting on the same branch that he had before. It was the exact same one he had literally "caught" the bus from.<p>

So here he was, yet again.

"You can come out from the bushes, I know you're there."

Below, there was a huff and a rustling of leaves as a figure moved from a group of bushes below.

"Took you long enough."

Dick smirked at the response, "I knew you were following me when you stubbed your toe on that brick back on Fifth Street."

"You know sometimes I really hate you?"

Nightwing closed his masked eyes with a smile, turned his head down and reopened the pools of blue. He spotted the brightly clothed figure below quite easily. Secretly, he was glad that the full yellow cape had returned to the iconic costume. The ole was back.

"You should be back at the hospital with you father, you know?"

There was a silence below that caused the elder hero to frown in worry. Was everything alright with the boy? It seemed only natural that a child would stay with their parent in this situation-

"I'm helping."

Helping wouldn't be word that Damian would say normally, but the way he said it-like there wasn't a debate that could change his mind-

He should send him back but then again-he probably should have done that before. The only problem was that even Fifth Street was far from the hospital. Sending the boy back through the city couldn't be even a decent idea in the slightest now that they were even further out and nearing the wreckage of the Manor.

Whether it was for the best or the worst, the elder sighed and tilted his head towards the area in the distance where the remains of the Manor rested, "Let's go."

Dick couldn't help but nearly pout at the smirk that fell over Damian's face at his invitation. At times, he hated getting attached to this kid.

As they continued their way through the trees though, and the newest Robin stepped on a weak branch that broke under his weight, Nightwing found it all a bit OK as he reached out and plucked the bird up before he could fall.

OK, so in the end-maybe it was all worth it.

* * *

><p>Ruffling through the dead leaves that covered the underground entrance revealed that the break in the ground was indeed barricaded with debris from the collapsed barn. But something wasn't-<p>

Dick reached out and tugged at a rotten board draped in a white and black colored moss.

At its assumed rate of decomposition, it should've splintered away from the remaining main body of the wooden plank easily.

It caught tightly and held fast.

Muttering a hum under his breath, Nightwing turned and reached for a dark metallic, pipe and pulled.

It held fast as well. Even with his above average strength, it held fast. Something was just unusual about this. Everything was packed surprisingly tightly for a collapsed building. Given a random packing of debris from a collapsed structure could, in effect, be packed very tightly, but everything here just fit too well.

Like it had been…manually packed.

He sighed, his thoughts drifting around and away from the situation. Any chance he could lure a grizzly bear or elephant out here to move this stuff? His ebony hair was blown from his face as his eyes followed the gust up towards a group of trees in the extreme distance.

Nope. No grizzly bears or elephants living here.

His masked blue eyes went back down, scanning over the grassy lawn. There was no evidence of any kind of burning, so it was obvious that fire hadn't touched the Manor in any way, hadn't been part of its destruction. Walls were face down on the ground, windows lay in heaps of glass, debris was strewn about in every direction and everything was quiet. There were no animals around either. Whatever had happened had definitely been a big commotion to scare them all away and keep them away. In that sense, it couldn't have been the fear toxin from the Scarecrow. It wouldn't scare every creature away from one area alone.

He bit his lip silently and left the area. Nothing. There was nothing. Whoever had done this was good and thorough, explicitly thorough. Walking around the remainder of the Manor's interior revealed little more to him; he pushed his feet through the inches of debris that covered the floor and continued his seemingly meaningless search. Boards, stones, bricks and concrete slabs were all his eyes continued to find. Running a hand through his hair in aggravation he turned to a still standing door and kicked it down when it was impossible to open. The whole doorframe was still standing with it…

The door fell back after another few kicks and Nightwing released a breath when the wood finally hit the floor. Inside, it didn't take him long to discover whose room he found himself in. Seeing something glint in response to the light that he took out to search the dark room, he found as recognition filled his mind. In the closest corner was a sword sheath with the most minimal of decorations covering it. The object's matching sword lay a few feet from it, in about a dozen pieces.

It was Damian's.

This was the kid's room.

Funny, this room had been on the third floor. Pretty well structured then, impressive.

Dick ignored the splintered sword and made his way to the center of the room where the room's king sized bed was in about thirty pieces itself. Everything that could be torn was and every piece that could have been broken was as well. That's when something on the opposite side of the bed caught his eye as well as the beam of light.

It was a thick chain.

From what he knew, Damian didn't especially like chains after that incident with the Joker. Shudder, he told himself not to think about it too much. A second thing he was storing away for the time being. As he stepped over the flattened bed and crouched down to get a closer look, his heart near skipped a beat when he noticed the details he should've noticed immediately. The chain was covered with numerous spikes for one and each spike was tipped with blood.

OK, he had not seen any wounds on Bruce or Alfred that could've been caused by such a device.

It was clearly a wrapping chain the way it was made.

So who-ugh, wasn't this entire situation a big enough tangle of knots already?

Take a deep breath, observe.

The blood was long dried, but not impossible to get a DNA signature from.

A ring echoed out from his earpiece communicator.

Wasn't the cats, but Damian. He had told him to check the perimeter of the Manor while he took the more dangerous task of checking the inside. More dangerous, but frightfully much more progressive in the beginning.

As Damian spoke, something flashed in Dick's mind.

The only one he had seen with wounds was-

Damian!

As the call came through though, he tried to keep the worry from his voice. You know, try to sound professional and all that.

* * *

><p>Beside a crumbled wall, a little bird was picking at the grass with his eyes, fighting an unknown. The heat seeking adaption to his mask was very helpful as Damian's eyes scanned the side field of Wayne Manor, passing over grass both dead and alive, broken trees and lawn statues and everything else that had once made up the place.<p>

So, he was completely focused on scanning the yard until-

"The back is clear other than the entrance to the Bat-Cave being stopped up with the collapsed barn."

Nightwing reporting in, at least he had something to report.

"..."

"You OK Robin?"

The Boy Wonder felt the muscles in his right hand jerking. NO! He was fine! The new fear toxin was NOT controlling him again. He would maintain control! He was Damian Wayne and would not allow a menial substance in his bloodstream to overcome his right to-

After sidestepping an old log he felt the wounds on his body twist uncomfortably. He bit his lip in response and took a shaky but silent breath. He should not be bothered by such a meaningless pain. Surface wounds were not serious.

"Nothing by the old dead tree Nightwing," he reported, though he realized that even under the log, the place was devoid of insects and every other type of creature.

"Check the cottage," the elder said, was his voice wavering or the communicator just losing power?

"But it's nothing but a brick wall," Damian protested, what good would come-

"..."

"Fine!" he yelled in exasperation, stupid Grayson, what could possibly be near the cottage?

It was a good 500 feet from the barn out back that the elder hero had just been examining. The idiot was being lazy as well as stupid.

He didn't see anything here either why would Dick want him to-

His breath caught and he must have near gasped because his mentor's voice immediately followed the release of breath.

"What is it Robin? Are you OK? Robin?"

He didn't need to ask. Damian could already hear the fool near jumping over Wayne Manor to get to him.

"I'm fine, and I found...something."

The boy noticed how the ground was a bit darker in one place below one of the trees and how, as he stepped to the side at the perfectly correct angle, something glinted that laid on the patch of darkened dirt.

It was only when he picked up the object that he could have the opportunity to guess at what it was; a gleaming, red, flat and bent piece of glass, like someone would use in a helmet to cover their eyes. And he had noticed from where his fingertips had brushed the ground, the dirt there was wet.

But who would have such a-?

Robin glanced up as he caught the black and blue costume of Nightwing rushing towards him. He had told him that he was fine!

-Yikes! And that little note reminded the boy to focus double time to stop his hand from shaking. Stupid muscles and fear toxin!

"Robin?"

The boy turned and held up the glass eye plate. In response, the older hero dug his heels into the dirt to stop and stare at the object in shock. But that look was unusual and so weird that it was too obvious. Now mask on or off, Damian could just as plainly see that his previous mentor was surprised. When Dick's eyes narrowed behind his mask seconds later, the boy was quick to ask after the information he required, knowing that what they were facing was someone that the elder knew.

"Who did this?"

"I-"

"I know that look. YOU KNOW. You know who this belongs to, you know who's doing this and you're going to tell me now!"

Damian punctuated the sentence by near stomping towards Nightwing, his hand on his sleeve, probably ready to go for a hidden knife of some kind. Nightwing gritted his teeth and held out his hand.

"Give that to me," Dick ordered his face dark and eyes near glaring.

Perhaps it was the time he had spent seeing the guy as Batman that made him hand over the red glass plate, maybe the bit of toxin still in his blood played a part too, but when the elder hero's hand wrapped around it Damian tightened his grip, "When you tell me who this is."

"Robin I-"

"YOU KNOW! TELL ME!"

"Robin listen, it's important that we get back to the hospital and to the others before-"

"Grayson don't you dare act like my father and keep information from me! We were Batman and Robin once, partners! Don't you dare keep secrets from me!"

No one could claim that the youngest 'Bat' didn't leave an impression on anyone that he met.

In a normal sow of compassion, the elder reached out and clasped Damian's hand between each of his and spoke softly.

"I'll tell you on the way, I promise."

Sincerity was one thing the younger was familiar with only because of the other hero. Now feeling awkward, Robin only nodded and pressed his lips together firmly. He would get the whole story before speaking.

Rebelling against his old mentor was one thing, but disrespecting him was quite another. He would never allow himself to fall that low.

* * *

><p>Let me know in a review if you'd like me to update with another chapter tomorrow.<p>

~Moonsetta


	11. Chapter 11

Back at the rooftop of Gotham General, strategically standing away from the cameras near them, the Birds and youngest 'Cat' were standing together, around the bent red glass eye plate the youngest had found.

Damian was silent, not speaking a word, which was unusual to the cat but not too weird. The fact that Nightwing was silent though, creepy.

Catgirl, for Kitrina had changed into her costume before she had made her back up to the rooftop, hissed under her breath and stomped her foot, "What the heck is this? What the hell is going on? Why are you two so quiet?"

Nightwing handed her the eye plate, "Take this to your mentor."

Catwoman had remained below to watch after the elders. Catgirl scowled, but did as she was told albeit a bit reluctantly.

It wasn't long before Catwoman had ascended to the rooftop as well, her hidden eyes met Nightwing's instantly as her boots hit the steady surface, her girl not far behind her. A stray gust blew the acrobat's hair across his eyes but they still flashed in recognition with the surprised green flawlessly.

The elder feline was holding out the glass eye plate when she walked towards him, her lips rebelling to part and to speak the name.

Completely fed up, Catgirl ran in front of her mentor and snatched the object away, "Someone tell me what is going on, now!"

Forward kind of girl wasn't she?

Nightwing ran a hand through his hair and sighed heavily, he could barely believe himself but nevertheless, the name slipped from his lips, "Jean-Paul Valley, Azrael."

"But I thought he was dead," Kitrina said, her eyes wide under her mask.

"We all did."

Why could no one stay dead?

They weren't left to contemplate the information for much longer because the rooftop door of the hospital swung open and there stood Doctor Leslie and right behind her, was Commissioner Gordon. The man looked pissed, which was probably an understatement at the time, because he crossed the roof at a speed the Flash family would have found impressive, and was holding out a bat-shaped communicator. When had Bruce given him that? Oh never mind.

"Trouble Commissioner?" Nightwing asked, straitening up.

"One of your 'Bats' outside the city."

The black and blue themed hero took the communicator quickly and spoke into it, "Report."

There was a deep breath of relief, then a shaking breath followed before the other could speak, "Nightwing, thank goodness."

He recognized the voice,his mouth fell open and he spoke quickly and quietly, "Huntress."

"It's-"

"Azrael, we know."

"WE? You're not alone? Who's with you?" the girl was speaking fast…too fast.

"Catwoman, Catgirl and Robin."

"Batman?"

"Currently indisposed."

She got the hint, "Listen, I have a metal splinter in my stomach that's really going to make it difficult to get into the new dress I just bought so get your but out here, I'm on Gotham's North side."

"You escaped?"

A breathless scoff followed, "Obviously. Can't get past security."

"We're on our way, stay on this line."

"Get a move on."

Nightwing turned and handed the communicator to Catwoman, "Talk beauty tips, fastenings, ribbons, something-just keep her from passing out. You two stay here. Using her as a bait to separate us four may be just that, to take us down. Stay together."

The felines nodded and Nightwing turned to the Commissioner, "Security is tight over there, can you get us outside the city for a few minutes?"

"Sure. You'll have to be fast."

"Of course," the hero mumbled, "I wouldn't want it to be easy any one of these days. Robin, come on."

The boy perked up a bit at the call to duty, but it was then that the elder hero noticed that his green gloved hands were trembling. What was wrong with him? He received a worried look from Catwoman and refocused his mind on Huntress. After all, the boy had said that he was fine, he would just have to trust his word for the time being.

* * *

><p>~Moonsetta<p> 


	12. Chapter 12

(A/N: I tried to make this as long as I could. This is the Last chapter. WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH!)

* * *

><p>Like the Commissioner had said, the two birds had to slip by the security around Gotham city very quickly. They had actually had to exit Gotham on the far West side, then make their away around the city's circumference perimeter to reach the area Huntress had called from.<p>

Robin had taken out a tracking devise, earning a raised eye brow from the elder hero as they followed a cramped in tree-shadowed path towards Huntress' signal.

"You carry a tracking device at all times?" Nightwing asked as he ducked below the second branch of the night that tried to take off his head.

To think, this adventure had only started but a few hours ago, though it had to be close to the dawn of the next day at the time.

"What, do you take me for a fool Grayson?"

Dick could only smile humorously; this kid was so much like Bruce. Was that why he took to the kid so effortlessly?

"You should be prepared for every situation," Robin said smugly, glancing down at the device.

Of course, he had been carrying it with him, so why not take advantage of being able to trace a communicator's call? Then again, it would be very helpful, if the device could track the other communicators without needing them to send out a signal. Well, they were out of the Batcave's and Batbunker's tech, so the only available tech was what they were carrying.

Dick couldn't complain much. Make do with what you got.

On a side note, the elder hero was thinking of stopping by that entrance some ways beyond the high rail train station. It might be their only way into the Batcave. If Azrael was the one doing this and had blocked the entrances near the manor to the cave, there was a high possibility that he had sealed the other entrances throughout the city. Though why he was doing all this-even if he was alive...

A buzz from his earpiece made Nightwing stop in his tracks and answer the call.

"Nightwing, she isn't going to last for much longer, and I've run out of things to talk about!" Selina said over the line, sighs hidden within her voice here and there.

"Then give the phone to Kitrina, just keep her awake, we don't know what kind of state she's in."

"Hurry."

"There!" Robin yelled, pointing to a barely standing outline of a well deep in the small trees that lined the road to Keystone city.

Against the stone structure, was the injured Huntress.

"Helena," Dick breathed and rushed to her side.

The girl looked up and scowled, a hand held over her stomach. The guys saw the blood before they'd had time to notice the true state of the girl. Stephanie was nothing compared to this.

"About time you made it," Helena said, half harsh and half breathless.

Dick dropped the bag he had been carrying from the hospital and pulled out the first aid kit he had grabbed before leaving. Well, he had been at a hospital; it had only seemed fair to take advantage of the situation. He dressed the wounds as efficiently as he could but then found a problem-

Even between him and Robin-

"There's no way we're going to get you back inside the city. Not in this state."

"Just let me rest, for a few moments," Huntress said, trying to regain her breath and re-stabilize her brain with fresh oxygen to clear its foggy interior due to the blood loss.

Nightwing sat down next to her and pulled a blanket from the bag before putting the first aid kit away. The blanket, he wrapped around the girl's shoulders and when she leaned over to rest against his side, he didn't complain. Besides, the remaining wall of that well against his own back, he had to admit, wasn't exactly made of the softest stone in the world. No telling how long Helena had been there.

Damian was half glaring at each one, an angry scowl on his face.

"What?" Dick asked, shining his masked, but innocent eyes on the Boy Wonder.

The youngest hero didn't say a word, just turned away from the duo and started adjusting the settings of his signal tracer. Nightwing just shrugged and turned his attention back to Huntress.

"Huntress?"

"…"

"Helena?"

The purple themed bat opened her eyes very slightly. She was fighting collapsing, Dick could tell that much, but he needed the information to fill in some of the holes. He kept his extra senses on the forest around them, it was still so unusual. Not to say that Huntress wasn't a great fighter, but why would only she escape? Unless, Azrael, so they at least believed was behind this so far, simply let her go to split up the birds and cats that had managed to group up?

"I know you're exhausted, but please tell me what you can."

"I was returning from patrol," she said, pausing to take a deep breath.

She looked something not short of a mummy with the bandages all over her. The biggest difference being that there were dotted red stains of blood seeping up through the white material.

"I ran into the Riddler and Enigma. They took running after a sound pounding though."

Dick thought that if he got Huntress and The Red Hood both pissed off enough, they could level Gotham easily.

"Went off to meet up with Spoiler and…"

The girl trailed off for just a moment to catch her breath, "I know the sound of a Batarang, thought it was him, but then it was dark for a moment-then-"

"Then I was eight again, my parents were-"

A hand on her shoulder made Huntress close her eye in relief. She didn't have to say anymore.

"Take your time, catch your breath," Dick said softly pulling the bag over so Helena could lie down and rest her head on it as a makeshift pillow.

It wasn't long before the temperamental temptress was breathing deeply, lost in her exhaustion. Nightwing ran a hand down his face and sighed deeply.

"I'm such an idiot."

"What are you whining about?" Damian asked.

He had sat below a nearby tree, pulled out a few tools from his belt and set to work on the tracking device.

"The fear toxin in the Batarang, of course she would be thinking of her family. I'm such an idiot."

"Yeah Grayson, we got that. So what now?"

Dick looked down at the newest addition to their Bat-Family and frowned before walking over and sitting next to him.

"Damian, do you remember anything else from when you were shot by the Red Hood. Did you hear something, feel something, anything?"

The young boy set down an electric embedding tool and narrowed his eyes at the ground, "I heard my father call my name, heard Catwoman and Catgirl running after Todd, tasted blood, then the chain-"

Damian froze when realized he had let that slip.

"I know about the chain, Azrael, or whoever this may be, perhaps someone's impersonating the original, left it in your room. Well, in what was left in your room anyways. I now know that's why you were wearing those bandages when you found me in Bludhaven. What else?"

"Yeah, the chain-"

"Wait, so Batman wasn't with you?"

"He…was…before that I-"

"So something or someone drove him away from you. Damn it!"

The elder hero shot to his feet and punched a hole in the tree behind him for good measure.

"What? What is it?" Robin demanded, getting ready to rise to his feet as well, the device before him near forgotten.

Catwoman and Catgirl had chased the Red Hood and heard him be dragged away. Those Cats weren't known for being slow though, so they would have returned to the others quickly and in that short amount of time, a single person had beat them back, found some way to keep Batman occupied while they turned and tortured Robin?

That wasn't possible for any criminal they knew. Which could only mean one thing if you stuck to the basic laws of physics-

"This has been done by more than one villain," Nightwing said, "Azrael, if the original is indeed in on this, he's not alone."

"Well then let's get back inside the city; the last thing I want at the moment, is whoever this is, coming back at aiming to kill my father while he's defenseless."

"You're right," the elder hero said, walking over to Helena and scooping her up into his arms, "I really sho-nevermind. Let's just hope that we can get back inside the city. Put that tracker back together and grab that bag. We might need that medical kit again."

He left the blanket wrapped around Huntress.

* * *

><p>Irony of ironies, if Bat-luck could be anything other than bad-luck-<p>

Gotham city had doubled her defenses.

"Well Grayson, how do we get in now?" Robin asked, taking a deeper than needed breath, and rubbing the top of his right hand with his left, it should not be twitching like this!

He was in control!

"Well, we definitely can't go through the front door and the spotlighted skies make a rooftop entrance impossible. Too bad."

"Too bad?" Damian growled, flipping up the hood on his costume.

"I might know another way in. If the entrance is still open to begin with though, it might be sealed like the others. It's quite a walk from here too."

"What do you take me for, an average simpleton?" Damian said with a scowl.

Dick nearly laughed at the line remembering a line he had said from his own time as Robin.

"_Of course I'm OK Alfred. What do you take me for, your average Joe?"_

Ah, good times. Good times.

"There's an old Bat-cave entrance near the high rail train station. Given it's outside the city, our enemy, or possibly enemies, may not have had the opportunity to seal it off as of yet."

"Then let's go already!"

Nightwing took a last look at the line of sirens surrounding Gotham before turning back around to pick up Huntress again; her peaceful sleep had only been a prelude to passing out completely. There's was no telling how long she would be out.

"Alright, follow me."

"TT."

Alright, he couldn't help but smile at the kid at that one. So Bruce-like.

Among a more civilized setting, aka the high rail station Dick and Damian had rode in on, the three heroes, one still completely unconscious; found it easy to sneak past the few workers remaining there. Assuming that the increased security around the city meant the internal problem had grown a lot worse or a high ranking officer had gotten more paranoid, the station had probably called off any and all incoming rides anywhere near Gotham.

Not surprising in the least.

As for the Batcave's outer city entrance, it was normally disguised by a sheet of shale stone nearly half buried in the ground, some way beyond the station. As for finding it, Nightwing could only smile in relief. No debris blocking the way, the lights inside were off, but the codes and intangible DNA laser scans were working just fine. They slipped in quickly and quietly.

Now, they could do something!

At least, that's what they had thought upon entering the cave.

"No," Dick breathed, his eyes wide before he mentally reprimanded himself as the heroes stepped down the last flight of steps into the legendary cave.

"It's all been destroyed," Robin breathed before choking a sound back down his throat and moving further in.

All of the technology was slashed to pieces, the vehicles broken up, slates of the rock walls had been shattered and the worst of it all?

A hundred bats were strayed across the floor, bloody and most certainly, dead.

* * *

><p>Dick choked back bile as he knocked the flying mammals' carcasses off a nearby lab table before laying Huntress down. Robin dropped the bag he had been carrying at the elder's feet before moving over to where a wall had been torn down. There was a Bat-vehicle of some kind inside, not even completed yet.<p>

A tiny squeak-ish squeal from nearby made Nightwing look to what remained of the ole Bat-Computer. He had been keeping all of his senses at their zenith since entering the cave, and he kept them at that same level as he approached the destroyed device. He was shocked when he reached the thing though, for inside the now hallowed out thing was, as cliché as it could ever be, a baby bat. This was too weird, why kill the hundreds of others, but leave this one?

Thing was, this one wasn't dead, or even injured, but his body had been burnt by the electrical currents from the wires in the machine that had been used to tie it down. Nightwing pulled the wires loose and watched the flyer hurl itself up to the ceiling. Normally this would have disturbed the others hanging up above, if any others were.

Was this a cryptic warning?

Nightwing returned to care for Huntress and succeeded in changing the bandages on the wounds that had stopped bleeding. He wrapped more on the ones that had successfully bled through and heaved a sigh before he realized that his left shoulder was suddenly flaring in pain. He must have pulled a muscle. At least it was just that though.

It could always be worse. At least that's what Dick told himself.

Of course, he stopped telling himself that when a near invisible and silent choking sounded from above him. More than likely the infant bat had discovered that none of his family and friends remained. It sounded out again.

No wait-it wasn't coming from above him, it was coming from the far wall where-

"Damian!"

He had just bounded over a pile of debris when he hit the proverbial "Bat-breaks" in shock and surprise.

Forget the bats. Near the broken down wall Damian was down on his knees, head bent, eyes sharply shut and hands curled against the bat blood on the floor.

In front of the boy was Titus, lying still, with a stalagmite through his chest, pinning him to the stone floor.

This time a gasp escaped the Boy Wonder's lips.

Crap. Damian was…crying.

Dick could only stare with an open mouth and dropped jaw.

When the baddies were destroying everything, it must have fallen on the canine. The elder's eyes went straight up and found that the ceiling wasn't bearing the jagged leftover rock that would be characteristic of a falling stalagmite. Besides the smooth ceiling, a rare instance in the cave, there were support beams to **stop** any spare rock from falling. That stalagmite hadn't just fallen, someone had used it deliberately.

At another gasp and shortness of breath, Dick was by his little brother's side, sliding an arm over his shoulders very cautiously. He saw that the boy had removed his mask and it was now lying by the dog's bleeding mouth.

The jaw-

It had been broken off.

He wanted to throw up, soooo badly.

Instead he pulled the younger closer to him and further from Titus. In response, the boy turned and buried his face into the elder's shoulder.

Whoa! Wait a minute! Hold on! What?

The fearless assassin child was actually-

Another gasp and his big brother instincts just couldn't stand it any longer. His arms went around the child and he stood up slowly, ignoring how the blood from the dog's mouth was staining the green mask red right at his feet. He turned away and made his way back to Huntress. The girl was still out.

And in time, so was the boy.

* * *

><p>One hour later, Dick found himself at one of the exits of the Batcave that lead to a path that lead up next to Gotham's bank. Like the others, it had been sealed. Though the Batcave's technology was useless, the few broken and fallen stalagmites and support beams were of some use when it came to busting through the debris on the inside.<p>

He tried not to think about the dead scattered bats, about Damian acting like he had, about Titus.

Memories of Ace flashed through his mind and he bit his lip to keep from being overcome by the emotion, not that he hadn't fully embraced any of it already. His frame shook as the last of the debris fell away. He didn't have the time or energy to work on the other exits at the moment. He needed to call Selina back and tell her-

Well, a lot of crap.

He needed to get Helena to the hospital too.

His hand traveled to his ear, the communicator.

"Nightwing?"

"Yeah Selina, it's me. I found Huntress and an outside entrance to the Batcave got overlooked."

"Lucky us."

"Listen. Where's Kitrina?"

"Sitting across from me staring out the window-oh, strike that, she's asleep."

Nightwing yawned, feeling the hours take their toll on his own body.

"Sounds like you need it too."

"Listen, Huntress needs medical attention. I've cleared the exit leading up to the bank nearby. I'll have the others there soon."

"Alright, us 'Cats' will meet you out front."

"Over and out."

Looking out at the tunnel that lead up to the bank, Nightwing turned away after a three second stare and made his way back to the unconscious heroes.

OK, maybe not unconscious. Huntress was sitting up on the lab table glaring down at the crossbow in her hands, like trying to melt it with Superman's heat vision would solve all of their problems.

"You're up," the man observed as he walked back into the cave.

The woman nearly pointed over her shoulder, "The kid."

Dick took the hint and found that Damian had already removed the stalagmite and covered Titus with his own cape.

"What is it Grayson?"

The man sighed under his breath silently and walked over before placing a hand on Damian's shoulder. He observed that the joint was tense, too tense.

"Come on, Huntress needs to get to the hospital. That'll be your job."

"Fine."

No huff, no demeaning snide comment. The boy was hurt.

"What about you?"

"There are a few things for me to take care of here," Dick answered honestly.

"Alright."

As soon as the boy seemed to be back to normal, he was ignoring him, again.

"I'm going to try to get a hold of Tim. I'll join you later."

"Hey, we leaving yet kid?" Helena called around the fallen debris.

Truthfully, all these dead Bats were creepy to her. She wanted to leave, though Dick doubted that the medical crew would keep her down for very long at the hospital. The departure was bitter sweet and only when the Cave was quiet again did Nightwing notice that Robin's tracker had been left on the lab table.

It was still showing Selina's and Kitrina's positions, and it appeared that Damian had adjusted it to all of their communicators as well.

Just as the hero turned to figure out the next easiest exit to clean debris out of, the tracker crackled a few times before a beep sounded out.

When he glanced back down at it, he found a new signal being picked up. A familiar name flashed on the top right corner of the screen.

Kate Kane.

Below, a red bat symbol joined the others. She, or someone, was trying to communicate but wasn't succeeding. It took the hero a few moments to realize the bigger problem. Batwoman's signal, was originating from Bludhaven.

His eyes narrowed as he activated his earpiece communicator again, "Guys, I'll have to meet up with you tomorrow. I have to catch a train."

He only hoped the high rail station was still up for transporting people **away** from Gotham.

* * *

><p>It was near an hour later when the news had got from Selina and to the others, given Damian had been out of it, Kitrina had fallen asleep and Huntress had to be sedated to keep her from jumping out the window. Stephanie had woken up during that time and was being carted off for blood tests.<p>

"He's what?" Damian asked, nearly seething.

"Going to catch a train back to Bludhaven, apparently he picked up Batwoman's signal with your signal tracker you left in the cave," Selina said in way of explanation.

The boy turned away from the woman and stared at the two forms on the bed. He bit his lip in the discrete-est way and closed his eyes in thought. Why his father? It was like the man was dead all over again. He ignored the ache in his heart, because it wasn't there.

Damian tried to re-establish his thoughts to their current situation but that was becoming very difficult as time went on. He, Helena, Selina and Kitrina were all in the room where his father and Pennyworth were, all dressed in their civilian attire. How long had they been like this? He had lost track of time.

"What's Grayson think he's doing anyways," Damian mentally chanted, "I wouldn't be surprised if one of these guys shows up and takes off his head."

He had beheaded another before, but he didn't like the image that flowed into his mind following that thought.

"I'm going after him," the boy stated, getting to his feet, "Grayson's such an idiot. He's bound to get himself killed out there on his own."

Helena smirked; she knew this had to have come along eventually.

"Go on," Selina said with a smile, "I'll-well, we'll look after the Big Black Bat and the Bat-Butler."

"Need a ride kid?" Huntress asked, her hand resting on her hip while she glared at seemingly nothing at all.

"I have my own ride and don't follow me idiot-you'll end up dead one way or another!"

It didn't take long for the assassin to leave the hospital, after retrieving his hero costume from a nearby alleyway, and making his way to the Bat-Bunker. He could fix those hover engines in no time. People were really useless at the worst of times!

His plan, fix the Batmobile, fly past security and make his way to Bludhaven, besides, he wanted a crack at whoever was doing this, especially since it left his father comatose.

Fix the Batmobile's hover engines so the vehicle could fly again: Easy.

Get past Gotham's Security: Like child's play, even if he had caused a big commotion.

Catching up to and flying past the train heading away from the outskirts of Gotham: Priceless

For a moment, in the air, he considered flying lower, but Grayson might have already spotted the vehicle. He considered calling but-if this thing could beat Gotham's high tech high rail runway?

Well the circus boy could just stick with his train; he would reach Bludhaven before the acrobat even got close in that pile of junk!

* * *

><p>Damian heard a million shouts in his head as he landed that Batmobile on the outskirts of Bludhaven city. The city was much easier to get into than Gotham and he ignored the voices in his head that declared that he shouldn't be flying the Batmboile, his limited tools had only fixed it to be 'good enough' to fly, it wasn't superiority steady.<p>

After ensuring that the vehicle was successfully hidden far from the main driving road; the new Boy Wonder hit the rooftops of Bludhaven.

Rooftop after rooftop. OK, as seemingly demising as it seemed, he stopped about one third of the way into the city. Grayson should've already arrived. And crap- he had his signal tracer!

So think, Bludhaven, where would the guy go after finding Batwoman?

The hospital or the police HQ?

Well the HQ of the BHPD was closer at the moment.

The morning was growing much lighter, and Robin was uncomfortable without a familiar shade of darkness he normally ran in, but he had a job to do-maybe he would run into one of the guys or the single guy that was up to all of this. Whoever. Sneaking into the building and avoiding the officers was simple. He found his way into a break room of some kind and was surprised and slightly relieved to see Amy in the room.

TT! Did every cop love doughnuts?

He scowled as he glanced down from the tiles that made up the ceiling. Now what? He hadn't seen his annoying fellow hero anywhere and he'd done near searched the whole HQ. Was Grayson slacking in finding Kate Kane?

"This is Kelly Hoopman, coming at you live three miles outside Bludhaven city."

The news was as useless as always.

Deciding to check the hospital next, Damian placed the tile he had been looking down from, back in place with a bit of pride. The idiot's partner hadn't suspected a thing. He turned to glance around for the vent he had used to get in-

"The high rail train from the outskirts of Gotham city…"

Wait a minute!

He near tore the tile back out again, only catching himself just in time to stop from making too much noise to attract the attention of the single officer below.

"We're continually keeping a second camera aimed at the one car. Again, the footage, caught by a traveler that was just leaving Bludhaven."

The footage was shaky and blurred but yes-there was the train that should've gotten here twenty minutes ago. Why was it so late and-

The boy thoughts were caught off when he saw a spark below one of its wheels. The track was fine, it was but-

He couldn't deny the truth when the locomotive derailed, its wheels kicking sparks as the entire high rail train went plummeting off the edge and into the ground before exploding in all its ten ton glory. The whole thing was set ablaze. He lost his breath and dropped the tile into place rather loudly before escaping back to the rooftop.

As Damian's feet hit the pavement he looked towards the horizon, there was a glow in the distance one might have mistaken for the sun if the giant fireball were to actually rise on the opposite side of the earth. Grayson was alive, no debating that; he just had to find him!

And when Damian Wayne took that first step to seek out the other hero, he would curse himself for being so distracted later.

Even though the darkness of the morning was very light, someone could still manage to hide in a shadow, which is just what one figure did as the boy prepared to shoot off a grappling line to the next building. Silent footsteps and a gust of wind later-

Damian had only taken that one step when he was grabbed from behind, a hand wrapped around his shoulders, pinning his arms and another clasped a rag over his mouth. He could taste the acidic texture flavor of some exotic flower pollen as he struggled.

Who was-?

He was pulled back more until his back was pressed against the shadowed form's chest. When the Boy Wonder struggled enough and made his enemy falter, he caught a glimpse of his enemy.

NO!

Staring into his eyes and raising a knife to his throat after stuffing the rag into his mouth, was a very determined, very recognizable set of eyes.

Red Robin.

Tim Drake.

Robin was aware of reality around them no longer after the blade bit his neck as his mind tried to focus beyond the rag in his mouth and his body struggled to break free. Drake had him topped in strength and size, merely because of age, and this time it was apparently enough. Another feeling of metal pressing against his skull made him nearly stiffen, the barrel of gun.

The sound of a fired bullet was followed up with silence.

The End

* * *

><p>I just reached chapter 12 with this story and decided that it was a good enough of a stopping place.<p>

The story will continue on, look on my profile soon for the following:

**1. Robin: Offline**

Direct follow up to "The Call" Damian finds an unlikely ally in Bludhaven and heads to the outskirts of the city among the high rail train's rubble. Can they find Nightwing and has Red Robin truly betrayed them? (One-Shot)

**2. Spoiler: Gotham's Fine Line**

Direct follow up to "The Call" and "Robin: Offline" Stephanie sheds the bandages of her injuries when she awakens at Gotham General once again, but is forced to re-dawn her cloak when Penguin makes a city-wide strike, the 'cats' are in trouble and-wait! Has Huntress truly betrayed them? (One-Shot)

As for the full story sequel:

**3. Recall**

Set after "The Call," "Robin: Offline" and "Spoiler: Gotham's Fine Line." It starts with a race back to Gotham as Nightwing and Robin rush back to the city. Two choices and the after-math of that choice.

Well, that's my plan at least.

Hope you enjoyed "The Call"

Pretty good for my first Nightwing story, I was surprised that I ended up with 35 alerts for this tale. Wow wee!

I shall thank you all by having the next two tales out by the end of this week.

Thanks again everyone!

~Moonsetta


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